Saying as all of the previous Forum data has been lost I thought I’d resurect this thread so we all have somewhere to vent our Legard frustrations. Unfortunately, I don’t think he’s improved at all this season, and he is without question the weak link in the BBC coverage. Please please please BBC replace him with a better commentator like David Croft or Ben Edwards ASAP!

He seems to have no conception of how racing works, I find myself yelling at the TV more and more because of him. He’s just so damn irritating, I really don’t know how Brundle can stand him. There’s so many things wrong with his commentary I couldn’t even begin to list them.

Well that felt good to get out of my system.

I would definitely prefer Crofty, just as long as it didn’t break up his partnership with Anthony Davidson for practice. Otherwise, I quite like the guy who commentates on the GP2, Martin Haven, I think.

He’s been better this season. I didn’t mind him at Turkey, I think that was his best weekend. It felt more natural. He was pretty good for most this weekend as well I think. He can talk a lot but maybe that’s just nerves/excitement, it takes a lot of confidence to just sit there and let the action flow. Maybe he just gets caught up in it. I don’t m,ind his enthsuiasm but he isn’t always the most accurate. Actually pulling up one of his mistakes this weekend got Magnificient Geoffrey to lend me half of his name so I’m not too fussed by that :P

Could the BBC do better? Possibly. Not Allen though and I think Legard is gradually getting better.

I have to say that after the last few races I stopped minding Legard, mainly because I couldn’t remember any of his inputs. Yesterday though was just terrible – constantly talking about crap everyone already knows, because he told us 10 minutes earlier. I’m just glad he doesn’t commentate on practice sessions.

To be fair I didn’t start this, I just resurected it! And it’s not possible that the BBC could find a better commentator, it’s not even probable, it’s definite, a certainty, a fact. Legard really is that bad. I think I’d rather listen to a lunatic armed with a megaphone for 2 hours.

Don’t get me wrong, it’s nothing personal, he’s no enemy of mine. But saying as we’re stuck with the commentators for 3 hours a weekend for 19 weekends throughout the year, its pretty frustrating having to put up with a commentator as incompetent as Jonathan Legard.

And yes, I know he’s probably a very nice guy and all that, but there’s no room for sentiment I’m afraid

I’ve got used to him/started tuning him out now so it’s not so bad. But he does jump back into my consciousness when he lets his excitement get the better of him. Like when he regularly thinks the driver defending into a corner is the one who’s overtaking.

Or yesterday when he said someone was going up the inside of Kubica when they were in fact going round the outside. Yes a simple slip of the tongue, but it must get a bit confusing for casual fans who are just tuning in and relying on the commentators to tell them exactly what’s happening.

I know when I tuned into Le Mans yesterday I needed the commentators to be accurate and informative because I don’t follow endurance racing. If Legard had been commentating on that I wouldn’t have had any idea what was going on!

In an ideal world he would be replaced by Crofty, but he doesn’t distract me from the races as much as he did last year so I don’t really mind ignoring him for now.

5LIVE. PRESS THE RED BUTTON GO TO SPORTS MULTI SCREEN GET CROFT AND DAVIDSON. They even play AC/DC during the warm up lap. Crofts guests range from Stewart to Villenurve and Di Resta, the chemistry between them (DC an AD) is fantastic, they both have a great working knowledge of the sport, the various goings on and what might happen in the race. They’re funny, they’re infomative, they add to the excitment, an if you miss Brundle you can still tune back in with the main commentary when Croft has a rubbish guest. Also don’t worry about it being for the radio, that audience is so small they just seem to do it for the telly, an Legard commentates like like it’s radio anyway so no worries.

There’s really no reason to complain when a brilliant alternative is out available at the click of a Button.

I know Scribe, I think 5 Live’s coverage is great too, but it’s not as simple as that. First of all, for people who only have freeview (like me), the option to switch to 5 Llive audio isn’t always there since the BBC decided to get rid of one of the red button channels. During the summer especially there is often some other sport on channel 301 so if I want to listen to 5 Live I’m going to have to switch to channel 705 and stare at a blank screen. Unless Legard really deteriorates I don’t think that’s an option!

Also, the 5 Live coverage simply isn’t as good in other ways. They always keep cutting off to other sports, and the gaps are filled in by silence. The audio and visuals aren’t in sync, so the commentators see things before we do, which is irritating. Also, the audio quality itself isn’t as good as the tv feed provides. Finally, and perhaps most importantly, I think Martin Brundle and Ted Kravitz are excellent, and I’m not impressed that they’re being overshadowed by Legard’s incompetence

My only gripe with 5Live is the audio of the cars. On the main program it’s got audio from microphones around the track but on 5live it’s just the sound of the cars going past the commentary box so it doesn’t feel so immersing.

I would rather have James Allen back, actually. I seem to remember saying in the days of the original forum, the only reason they got rid of him was a silly internet hate campaign that has been taken too far and has had far too much frivolous influence on a serious decision making process.

Legard hasn’t improved at all. I think the people saying he has, are just trying to be diplomatic.

Yes Allen said some cringe-worthy embarrassing things but Legard is far worse. He alternates between unintelligible gabbling and low-decibel muttering…..and then that awful half-throated grunting/shouting, and all the time he is saying something painfully obvious because he doesn’t seem to have got it into his head that he isn’t on the radio any more and we can actually see the action.

I bet some people see these threads and think “come on, he’s just a commentator, get over it”. Well, it’s really annoying to have to listen this guy, he can make an exciting race seem boring. And I shouldn’t have to faff about switching to some red button “alternative” commentary or whatever.

The BBC should start listening to its viewers for once. Even if they don’t bring Allen back they should still get someone else….

The BBC should have at least given James Allen a go. On ITV I didn’t like him because of his enormous bias, the same went for Ted Kravitz. I was disappointed when I saw that he was making the switch but now I think he’s a brilliant and integral part of the team. If the BBC were able to neuter this bias with Ted then I’m sure they would have been able to do the same with James Allen. He at least had a some chemistry with Martin and would often ask for his opinion on a situation. To me, sometimes it seems that Brundle and Legard aren’t even in the same room.